Deputies Find Heroin Overdoses Have Lost Shock Value In Orange

Heroin overdoses are getting so common in Orange County that deputy sheriffs joke about placing special first-aid kits in local convenience stores.

The gallows humor came out Thursday as Fire Rescue paramedics treated two men turning blue outside a 7-Eleven store on South Orange Blossom Trail.

The men were found slumped over in a van from probable heroin overdoses, sheriff's spokesman Jim Solomons said.

``The oldest one was in pretty bad shape,'' said Solomons, who watched paramedics inject a heroin antidote into a vein in the 30-year-old. ``He looked so bad they hung the IV right there in the passenger seat.''

The other man, 19, also survived.

Another teenager was not so fortunate this week.

Benjamin Montalvo, 18, died early Wednesday from a suspected heroin overdose after escaping from a drug-treatment center two days earlier, according to sheriff's records. It was the fourth such death of a local teenager since July.

Two years ago, metro Orlando received nationwide attention after seven teenagers died from heroin in less than 12 months. Now, many heroin deaths pass almost unnoticed.

``I think of it the way bank robberies used to be. When I started 13 years ago, if we had a bank robbery, you'd have three TV stations, two radio stations and the newspaper would be at the crime-scene tape. Now bank robberies are just a passing phone call,'' Solomons said. ``It's a sad sign of the times when a serious drug overdose doesn't attract much media attention.''

The number of confirmed heroin deaths this year in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties stands at 22 - one more than last year. The number likely will increase dramatically by year's end when autopsy results on at least 10 suspected cases are received at the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner's Office.

Early this summer, drug counselors at three methadone clinics in Orlando said up to 50 percent of the addicts seeking treatment for heroin were younger than 25. Until two years ago, methadone patients were in their mid-30s or older with longstanding habits.

Another sign of Central Florida's growing population of increasingly younger heroin users and dealers includes the recent arrest of an Orlando teenager accused with shoplifting.

The 18-year-old University High School student arrested Sept. 21 had 1 ounce of heroin worth up to $5,000 in his pocket when he was questioned at a supermarket, according to reports.

The arrest was far from unusual. Two days later, a 23-year-old Kissimmee man admitted being a major player on the Orlando drug scene after deputies said they caught him in a Colonial Drive motel with heroin, cocaine and ecstasy, a scale to weigh drugs and a loaded 9mm pistol, according to sheriff's reports.

Montalvo, the teen who died Wednesday, walked away on Monday from a drug-treatment program run by the Center for Drug-Free Living, near SeaWorld. He had been sent there by state circuit court for past drug offenses, according to sheriff's records.

The teen's mother found him about midnight Tuesday, hanging out at Auto Sales, a used-car dealership run by a friend. She told deputies Wednesday she persuaded him to spend the night with her by sleeping on the floor of the dealership on Winegard Road.

Montalvo acted very tired but told his mother it was from taking Xanax, an antidepressant. He was dead when his mother tried to wake him about 5:30 a.m., the sheriff's report said.

Deputies said they found ``three small tinfoil packets known as bindles'' next to the body. Bindle is a street term for a packet of heroin worth from $10 to $20.

The two men treated Thursday regained consciousness after receiving Narcan, a heroin antidote, Solomons said. They were transported to Lucerne Medical Center in Orlando, where they were treated and released, a nursing supervisor said.